Honestly, Really

I recently was challenged to be honest with myself. “Are you being honest with yourself . . . really?” The question makes you think, really think. Not just a passing minute or two, but over the hours and days that follow.

In light of my last post and this challenging question, I think I’ve had to look hard at being honest with myself. Here’s what I’ve discovered, or concluded. My life doesn’t look like what it once did. It doesn’t look like what I planned for. I was once married, but now I’m not. And there are so many parts of being married that I miss.

I miss the romance. I miss having someone pursue me. I miss someone wanting me. I miss being desired. I miss someone bringing me flowers and telling me he loves me. I miss his company and holding his hand. I miss hearing he loves me.

I think much of this is what has led me to those obsessing, all-consuming thoughts. But in looking hard at this, I feel like God is beginning to show me something I haven’t seen before. I haven’t quite grasped it. I get little glimpses of it. I reach out to fully embrace all of it but can’t yet. I get just a little taste at a time, but it keeps me pursuing. And this time it’s not the obsessive thoughts I’m pursuing. I’ve asked God to take all these things I miss about being married and to show me fulfillment in Him in these areas. That I might be so satisfied in my relationship with Him, that even the beauty of my married life would be eclipsed.

God let me find all these things in you. Let me feel loved and pursued and desired. Let me find the satisfaction of all these things in You. Let me find them in such a way and in such fulfillment that I don’t seek for their gratification anywhere else. Let me be so fulfilled that it is beyond what I had in him. Let it be even greater than I knew was possible.

Help me to be patient and persevere so that you will grow me and mature my faith. Strengthen me to pursue You, even as I desired to be pursued. Perfect me. Complete me.